Dedicated charging points for electric taxis (2)

Caroline Pidgeon: What is the ratio of dedicated charging points for electric taxis to London taxis?

The Mayor: Transport for London (TfL) has installed 170 rapid charging points so far. Of these, 68 charging points are currently dedicated to Zero Emission Capable (ZEC) taxis only. There were 1,191 ZEC taxis as of 7 March 2019, giving a ratio of 17.5 ZEC taxis per taxi-only rapid charging point. There are 102 open access rapid charging points which are also available to ZEC taxi drivers giving a ratio of just under 12 ZEC taxis to each open access charging point. According to publicly-available data provided by Zapmap, there are a further 80 plus rapid charging points across London available to all users.

Taxi Delicensing Scheme (2)

Keith Prince: How much funding will be provided to the newly restructured taxi delicensing scheme as opposed to the previous scheme, and where will any savings be redirected?

The Mayor: On 14 January 2019, Transport for London (TfL) launched a restructured taxi delicensing scheme, to help incentivise taxi owners to give up their more polluting taxis and encourage them to switch to zero emission capable (ZEC) vehicles. The new scheme has top payments of £10,000, which is double that of the previous scheme. TfL has received an extremely positive response, with considerably more applications being made in the first month than were made in the previous 17 months of the original scheme.
In response to the popularity of the restructured scheme on Friday 15 February2019, I announced an additional £24million, increasing the funds available to £42million. This increases the number of top tier payments available from 250 to 1,250.
More information on the delicensing scheme is available at: www.tfl.gov.uk/info-for/taxis-and-private-hire/taxi-delicensing-scheme.

TfL Toilet Charging

Joanne McCartney: Further to MQ 2018/2867, Network Rail have now announced that toilet charges will be scrapped from April 2019. Are you able to give an update into TfL’s review of toilet charges which was due in November 2018?

The Mayor: Transport for London’s (TfL) review of toilets has been completed. TfL is now considering a number of recommendations, including removing charging and looking into new systems to mitigate the risk of anti-social behaviour. This is taking some time to get right, as TfL needs to ensure that any new policy can be implemented on London Underground and good quality facilities can continue to be available for customers to use. TfL will be in touch with your office to arrange a dedicated briefing on the issue as a matter of priority.